Reviews with content warning for Xenophobia - Beartown

Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

Beartown by Fredrik Backman

58 reviews

miggins321's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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briemont5's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I am way late to the game, but I finished Beartown today. If you haven’t read it, it’s highly recommended. Yeah, it’s great because it revolves around hockey. But it does so much more than that.

If you’re moderately involved in hockey, you know each of these characters in real life. It’s a good social commentary on toxic masculinity, small town mentality, blind devotion that comes with team mentality, and the pressure of youth sports. It’s a beautifully told story about how something we love has such an ugly side.

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sarahrhanks's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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beansprouts's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Given that I have met many a reader who was mad at It Ends With Us not mentioning its abuse, it’s important that we say this book contains a rape in a conservative town,

and does not end as one would like.

It is emotional, and creates the question of do we read the sequel, given the devastation of this one.

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mollywill's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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leonormsousa's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I think the best word to describe what Beartown was to me is unexpected. Not unexpected in terms of quality (I mean I had seen how much Sara from @book.vorfreude loved it and she has great taste so I was already expecting to love it as well) but pretty much in every other sense of the word.

I went in without knowing much about the book and I think that’s the best way to go. The synopsis is kind of vague (which I very much approve of in this case) and there’s not even a genre that you can quite attribute to the book. Even after reading it, it’s hard to describe what this book is about. What I can say is that it is, at its very core, a book about humans. And a delicious one indeed.

Beartown is most definitely a slow burner. For the first half of the book, it feels like nothing’s happening. But, surprise, surprise: it’s only the great (and very much needed) set-up for what is to come. You spend 200 pages getting to know these characters, their history, their passions, their goals and wishes, and what drives them. You create empathy with all of them. And then, Backman slowly “breaks” them, one by one.

I got to tell you, this book was definitely one of the most violently emotional books I’ve ever read. It got to a point where I was crying almost every chapter (and I’m not even an easy crier). And the reason why it was so is that it felt so absolutely REAL. Every character, every action, every plot line. There are many great things about this book, but I believe this is the biggest one.

Backman’s writing is quite simple, yet very peculiar. The sentences in Beartown are short and concise. Almost like they’re just stating facts, one after the other. At the same time, we’re constantly skipping points of view, with our third-person narrator following an enormous amount of characters (I would say we follow about 5-10 more closely, but maybe 20+ in total). So, it’s rather curious how with both these characteristics, they are still able to capture the essence of each character so well. I, personally, quite enjoyed this writing style, although I can see why some people wouldn’t.

Although there were several topics in Beartown that I found tremendously interesting, the one that took the biggest toll on me was the family/parenthood relationships. I won’t develop this a lot because I don’t think I can do it without spoiling anything, but this was definitely a topic that I hadn’t seen explored before, at least not in this way. In particular, seeing the reciprocity of pain and protectiveness. How there’s never just one victim, how trauma is something that propagates through your loved ones. It was just heartbreaking. Something I’m looking forward to reading more about (a bit of a masochist, aren’t I?!).

Finally, to close this already too big review: I am obviously very much excited to read other Backman’s books, although I heard that this one is completely different from the others. I also know that there is a sequel to Beartown already published and a final one yet to be translated but tbh I’m not super eager to read them just because this works so well as a standalone and I don’t want to ruin it. I’ll still probably do it though, eventually... And of course, thank you to Sara for recommending this one!

REP: gay MC, arab MC

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readingthroughinfinity's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

THIS BOOK??? I'm so glad I finally read this on Jaz's recommendation because this book was fantastic and like nothing I've ever read before. The writing is emotional, poignant and thoughtful, making us really invest in the protagonists. The slow start works perfectly to introduce us to the big cast of characters and, as the story progresses, we see how interconnected everyone and everything is, making the ending even more powerful and resounding. A truly excellent book.

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coralie_michon's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

This book was such a difficult read, but also such an amazing read. I will always have this book on my mind. The themes are not usually what I go to, but this book showed me that expanding my horizons can pay off.

bang-bang-bang-bang-bang

This book is about more than hockey. It's about a town, a community, stuck between having to do what's right and what's best for the team. It's an eternal dilemma, a hard choice for certain. It's about strength, courage, loyalty. It's about power and fighting for justice. It's about the brutality of your actions, the consequences of your decisions.

bang-bang-bang-bang-bang

Again, Fredrik Backman used his talent to create a universe that feels so real, it's like you live in it. It's like you go to the rink with Benji or you go to Maya's garage to hear her play the guitar. I still can't believe how amazing his work is, how painful the stories are, but he paints them in such a poetic way that it touches the soul in a unique way.

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baratheonbooks's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

readingwith_melise's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

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